Tehran: Iran on Monday rejected media reports that the Iranian oil tankers seized by the U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf used forged Iraqi documents.
The report, which quoted Iraqi oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani as saying that the Iranian oil tankers being detained by U.S. naval forces carried Iraqi shipping manifests, was untrue, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister for International and Commercial Affairs, Ali-Mohammad Mousavi, said.
Iran sold its oil in compliance with all regulations and criteria in oil trade interactions, the minister said in a recent interview with the Shana News Agency affiliated with the Iranian Oil Ministry.
The Iraqi oil minister’s remarks had been reflected incompletely and he has made the claim quoting U.S. officials, Mousavi said.
It was clear that the U.S. officials’ claim was made in line with the “illegal and unjustified policy of hurling unfounded accusations against and pressuring the Iranian nation” and failed to have any basis and credibility, he added.
The United States has intensified its unilateral sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, as U.S. President Donald Trump took an executive action in early February to step up pressure on Iran, which was aimed at bringing the country’s oil exports to zero and preventing it from what he claimed “obtaining nuclear weapon.”
